** A^^ 



.4^^ 





• o* 







• M 














..^ 



.^^^ 




• a 














^H^ 
































* *:*> 




^0^ 







.n«fc 






dc^^ ' 



^5 

HISTORIC ' 



DOUBTS 



EEIA^ITE TO 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 



"Is not the same reason available in theology and in politics 1 
Will you follow truth but to a certain point?" 

Burke^s Vindication of J^atural Society. 



BY RICHARD WHATELY, D. D. 

ARCHBISHOP OF DUBLIN. 

FIRST AMERICAJV'MDITIO^ 



PHILADELPHIA: 



JAMES M. CAMPBELL, 

S. E. CORNER CHESTNUT AND FIFTH STREETS. 
NEW YORK :— SAXTQJV h. MILES. 

1846. • 



J^ 



V 






1 1 
* * 



hZ 



sJ^ 



^. PREFACE. 



Several of the readers of this little 
work have derived much amusement 
from the mistakes of others respecting 
its nature and object. It has been bj 
some represented as a serious attempt 
to inculcate universal scepticism; 
v^hile others have considered it as a 
jeu d' esprit, &c. The Author does 
not however design to entertain his 
readers with accounts of the mistakes 
which have arisen respecting it : . be- 
cause many of them, he is convinced, 
would be received with incredulity ; 
and he could not, without indelicate 
exposure of individuals, verify his an- 
ecdotes. 

But some sensible readers have com- 

(3) 



IV PREFACE. 



plained of the difficulty of determining 
what they are to believe. Of the ex- 
istence of Buonaparte, indeed, they re- 
mained fully convinced ; nor, if it were 
left doubtful, would any important re- 
sults ensue; but if they can give no 
satisfactory reason for their conviction, 
how can they know, it is asked, that 
they may not be mistaken as to other 
points of greater consequence, on 
which they are no less fully convinced, 
but on which all men are not agreed ? 
The Author has accordingly been so- 
licited to endeavour to frame some ca- 
nons which may furnish a standard for 
determining what evidence is to be re- 
ceived. This he conceives to be im- 
practicable, except to that extent to 
which it is accomplished by a sound 
system of Logic; including under that 
title, a portion — that which relates to 
the '' Laws of Evidence" — of what is 
sometimes treated of iinder the head 



PREFACE. 



of '' Rhetoric." But the fall and 
complete accomplishment of snch an 
object would confer on man the unat- 
tainable attribute of infallibility. 

But the difficu^^ complained of he 
conceives to arise from men's mis- 
stating the grounds of their orvn con- 
viction- They are convinced, indeed, 
and perhaps with very sufficient rea- 
son ; but they imagine this reason to 
be a different one from what it is. The 
_eyidence^_which Jbhey haj^^sseat^ii 
is applied to their minds in a different 
manner from that in which they be- 
lieve it is — and suppose it ought to be 
— applied. And when challenged to 

defend and iustify their. QWtt. belief, 

tEeyTeel at a loss, because they are 
attempting to maintain a position 
which is not in fact that in which their 
force lies. 

For a developement of the nature, the 
consequences, and the remedies of this 



VI PREFACE, 

mistake, the reader is referred to 
''Hinds on Inspiration," pp. 30 — 46. 
If such, a developement is to be found 
in any earher works, the Author of 
the following pages at least has never 
chanced to meet with any attempt of 
the kind.* 

' It is only necessary to add, that as 
this work first appeared in the year 
1819, many things are spoken of in the 
present tense to which the past would 
now be applicable. 

A Postscript was added to the third 
edition, which was published soon after 
the accounts of Buonoparte's death 
reached us ; and another at the time 
of the supposed removal of his re- 
mains. 

* See Elements of Rhetoric, P. L ch, 2. § 4. 



HISTORIC DOUBTS 



RELATIVE TO 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 



LoNGJ- as the public attention has been 
occupied by the extraordinary Personage 
from whose ambition we are supposed to 
have so narrowly escaped, the subject seems 
to have lost scarcely anything of its interest. 
We are still occupied in recounting the 
exploits, discussing the character, inquiring 
into the present situation, and even con- 
jecturing as to the future prospects of 
Napoleon Buonaparte. 

Nor is this at all to be wondered at, if 
we consider the very extraordinary nature 
of those exploits, and of that character ; 
their greatness and extensive importance, 
as well as the unexampled strangeness of 
the events, and also that strong additional 
stimulant, the mysterious uncertainty that 
hangs over the character of the man. If it 



8 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

be doubtful whether any history (exclusive 
of such as is confessedly fabulous) ever 
attributed to its hero such a series of won- 
derful achievements compressed into so 
small a space of time, it is certain that to no 
one were ever assigned so many dissimilar 
characters. 

It is true, indeed, that party-prejudices 
have drawn a favourable and an unfavour- 
able portrait of almost every eminent man ; 
but amidst all the diversities of colouring, 
something of the same general outline is 
always distinguishable. And even the 
\Airtues in the one description bear some 
resemblance to the vices of another : rash- 
ness, for instance, will be called courage, or 
courage, rashness ; heroic firmness, and 
obstinate pride, will correspond in the two 
opposite descriptions ; and in some leading 
features both will agree. Neither the friends 
nor the enemies of Philip of Macedon, or of 
Julius Csesar, ever questioned their cou- 
rage, or their military skill. 

With Buonaparte, however, it has been 
otherwise. This obscure Corsican adven- 
turer, a man, according to some, of extraor- 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 9 

dinary talents and courage, according to 
others, .of very moderate abilities, a,nd a 
rank coward, advanced rapidly in the 
French army, obtained a high command, 
gained a series of important victories, and, 
elated by success, embarked in an expedi- 
tion against Egypt ; which was planned and 
conducted, according to some, with the most 
consummate skill, according to others, with 
the utmost wildness and folly : he was un- 
successful however ; and leaving the army 
of Egypt in a very distressed situation, he 
returned to France, and found the nation, 
or at least the army, so favourably disposed 
towards him, that he was enabled, with the 
utmost ease, to overthrow the existing gov- 
ernment, and obtain for himself the supreme 
power ; at first under the modest appella- 
tion of Consul, but afterwards with the 
more sounding title of Emperor. While in 
possession of this power, he overthrew 
the most powerful coalitions of the other 
European States against him ; and though 
driven from the sea by the British fleets, 
overran nearly the whole continent, triumph- 
ant ; finishing a war, not unfrequently, in a 



10 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

single campaign, he entered the capitals of 
most of the hostile potentates, deposed and 
created kings at his pleasure, and appeared 
the virtual sovereign of the chief part of the 
continent, from the frontiers of Spain to 
those of Russia. Even those countries we 
find him invading with prodigious armies, 
defeating their forces, penetrating to their 
capitals, and threatening their total subjuga- 
tion. But at Moscow his progress is stopped : 
a winter of unusual severity, co-operating 
with the efforts of the Russians, totally de- 
stroys his enormous host ; and the German 
sovereigns throw off the yoke, and combine 
to oppose him. He raises another vast 
army, which is also ruined at Leipsic ; and 
again another, with which, like a second 
Antgeus, he for some time maintains himself 
in France ; but is finally defeated, deposed, 
and banished to the island of Elba, of which 
the sovereignty is conferred on him. Thence 
he returns, in about nine months, at the 
head of 600 men, to attempt the deposition 
of King Louis, who had been peaceably 
recalled ; the French nation declare in his 
favour, and he is reinstated without a strug- 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE, 11 

gle. He raises another great army to oppose 
the allied powers, which is totally defeated 
at Waterloo : he is a second time deposed, 
surrenders to the British, and is placed in 
confinement at the island of St. Helena. 
Such is the outline of the eventful history 
presented to us ; in the detail of which, how- 
ever, there is almost every conceivable 
variety of statement ; while the motives and 
conduct of the chief actor are involved in 
still greater doubt, and the subject of still 
more eager controversy. 

In the midst of these controversies, the 
preliminary question, concerning the exist- 
ence of this extraordinary personage, seems 
never to have occurred to any one as a 
matter of doubt ; and to show even the 
smallest hesitation in admitting it, would 
probably be regarded as an excess of scepti- 
cism; on the ground that this point has 
always been taken for granted by the dis- 
putants on all sides, being indeed implied 
by the very nature of their disputes. 

But is it in fact found that undisputed 
points are always such as have been the 
most carefully examined as to the evidence 



12 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

on which they rest ? that facts or principles 
which are taken for granted, without con- 
troversy, as the common basis of opposite 
opinions, are always themselves established 
on sufficient grounds ? On the contrary, is 
not any such fundamental point, from the 
very circumstance of its being taken for 
granted at once, and the attention drawn 
off to some other question, likely to be 
admitted on insufficient evidence, and the 
flaws in that evidence overlooked ? Experi- 
ence will teach us that such instancesoiten 
occur : witness the well known anecdote of 

■" ■"■liiiiiinini II I 1 ml 

the Royal Society ; to whom King Charles 
II. proposed as a question, whence it is that 
a vessel of water receives no addition of 
weight from a live fish being put into it, 
though it does if the fish be dead. Various 
solutions, of great ingenuity, were proposed, 
discussed, objected to, and defended ; nor 
was it till they had been long bewildered 
in the inquiry, that it occurred to them to 
try the experiment ; by which they at 
once ascertained, that the phaenomenon 
which they were striving to account for, 
— which was the acknowledged basis and 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 13 

substratum, as it were, of their debates, — 
had no existence but in the invention of 
the witty monarch.* 

Another instance of the same kind is so 
very remarkable that I cannot forbear men- 
tioning it. It was objected to the system 
of Copernicus when first brought forward, 
that if the earth turned on its axis as he 
represented, a stone dropped from the sum- 
mit of a tower would not fall at the foot of 
it, but at a great distance to the west ; in 
the samemanner as a stone dropped from 
the mast-head of a ship in full sail, does 
not fall at the foot of the mast, but to- 
wards the stern. To this it was answered, 
that a stone being a part of the earth obeys 

* " A report is spread, (says Voltaire in one of his 
works,) that there is, in some country or other, a giant 
as big as a mountain ; and men presently fall to hot 
disputing concerning the precise length of his nose, the 
breadth of his thumb, and other particulars, and anathe- 
matize each other for heterodoxy of belief concerning 
them. In the midst of all, if some bold sceptic ventures 
to hint a doubt as to the existence of this giant, all are 
ready to join against him and tear him to pieces." This 
looks almost like a prophetic allegory relating to the 
gigantic Napoleon. 

2 



14 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

the same laws, and moves with it ; whereas, 
it is no part of the ship ; of which, conse- 
quently, its motion is independent. This 
solution was admitted by some, but opposed 
by others ; and the controversy went on 
with spirit ; nor was it till one hundred 
years after the death of Copernicus, that 
the experiment being tried, it was ascer- 
tained that the stone thus dropped from 
the -head of the mast does fall at the foot 
ofit!^ 

Let it be observed that I am not now 
impugning any one particular point ; but 
merely showing generally, that what is un- 
questioned is not necessarily unquestion- 
able ; since men will often, at the very 
moment v/hen they are actually sifting the 
evidence of some disputed point, admit 
hastily, and on the most insufficient grounds, 
what they have been accustomed to see 
taken for granted. 

The celebrated Humet has pointed out 

xai £7il "ta aifocfxa (mM.ov 'fpiy.ovTfiu. Thucyd, b. i. c. 20- 

j- " With what greediness are the miraculous accounts 

of travellers received, their descriptions of sea and land 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 15 

also the readiness with which men behevej 
on very slight evidence, any story that 
pleases their imagination by its admirable 
and marvellous character. Such hasty cre- 
dulity, however, as he well remarks, is 
utterly unworthy of a philosophical mind ; 
which should rather suspend its judgment 
the more, in proportion to the strangeness 
of the account, and yield to none but the 
most decisive and unimpeachable proofs. 

Let it then be allowed us, as is surely 
reasonable, just to inquire, with respect to 
the extraordinary story I have been speak- 
ing of, on what evidence we believe it. We 
shall be told that it is notorious ; i. e. in 
plain English, it is very much talked about. 
But as the generality of those who talk 
about Buonaparte, do not even pretend 
to speak 'from their own authority, but 

monsters, their relations of wonderful adventures, strange 
men, and uncouth manners !" — Hume's Essay on Mira- 
cles, p. 179, 12mo; p. 185, 8vo. 1767; p. 117, Svo. 1817. 
N. B. — In order to give every possible facility of re- 
ference, three editions of Hume's Essays have been 
generally employed; a 12mo. London, 1756, and two 
Svo. editions. — -^.^ 



16 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

merely to repeat what they have casually 
heard, we cannot reckon them as in any de- 
gree witnesses ; but must allow ninety-nine 
hundredths of what we are told to be mere 
nearsay, which would not be at all the more 
worthy of credit even if it were repeated 
by ten times as many more. As for those 
who profess to have personally known 
Napoleon Buonaparte, and to have them- 
selves ivitnessed his transactions, I write 
not for them : if any such there be, who 
are inwardly conscious of the truth of all 
they relate, I have nothing to say to them, 
but to beg that they will be tolerant and 
charitable .towards their neighbours, who 
have not the same means of ascertaining 
the truth, and who may well be excused 
for remaining doubtful about such extraor- 
dinary events, till most unanswerable proofs 
shall be adduced. " I would not have be- 
heved such a thing, if I had not seen it," is 
a common preface or appendix to a narra- 
tive of marvels ; and usually calls forth 
from an intelligent hearer the appropriate 
answer, " no more will /." 

Let us, however, endeavour to trace up 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 17 

some of this hearsay evidence as far towards 
its source as we are able. Most persons 
would refer to the newspapers as the autho- 
rity from which their knowledge on the 
subject was derived; so that, generally 
speaking, we may say it is on the testimony 
of the newspapers that men believe in the 
existence and exploits of Napoleon Buona- 
parte. 

It is rather a remarkable circumstance, 
that it is common to hear Englishmen speak 
of the impudent fabrications of foreign 
newspapers, and express wonder that any 
one can be found to credit them ; while 
they conceive that, in this favoured land, 
the liberty of the press is a sufficient secu- 
rity for veracity. It is true they often speak 
contemptuously of such ^' newspaper stories" 
as last but a short time ; indeed they con- 
tinually see theui contradicted within a day 
or two in the same paper, or their falsity 
detected by some journal of an opposite 
party ; but still, whatever is long adhered 
to and often repeated, especially if it also 
appear in several different papers (and this, 
though they notoriously copy from ouo 



18 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO ''■ 

:i 

another), is almost sure to be generally be- 
lieved. Whence this high respect which is 
practically paid to newspaper authority? 
Do men think, that because a witness has 
been perpetually detected in falsehood, he 
may therefore be the more safely believed 
whenever he is 7iot detected ? or does ad- 
herence to a story, and frequent repetition 
of it, render it the more credible ? On the 
contrary, is it not a common remark in 
other cases, that a liar will generally stand 
to and reiterate what he has once said, 
merely because he has said it ? 

Let us, if possible, divest ourselves of this 
superstitious veneration for every thing that 
appears " in print," and examine a little 
more systematically the evidence which is 
adduced. 

I suppose it will not be denied, that the 
three following are among the most impor- 
tant points to be ascertained, in deciding on 
the credibility of witnesses ; first, whether 
they have the means of gaining correct in- 
formation ; secondly, whether they have 
any interest in concealing truth, or propa- 
gating falsehood ; and, thirdly, whether they 



NAPOLEOxV BUONAPARTE. 19 

agree in their testimony. Let us examine 
the present witnesses upon all these points. 
First, what means have the editors of 
newspapers for gaining correct information? 
We know not, except from their own state- 
ments. Besides what is copied fram other 
journals, foreign or British, (which is usually 
more than three-fourths of the news pub- 
lished,*) they profess to refer to the author- 

* " Suppose a fact to be transmitted through twenty 
persons ; the first communicating it to the second, the 
second to the third, &c., and let the probabihty of each 
testimony be expressed by nine-tenths, (that is, suppose 
that of ten reports made by each witness, nine only are 
true,) then, at every time the story passes from one 
witness to another, the evidence is reduced to nine- 
tenths of what it was before. Thus, after it has passed 
through the whole twenty, the evidence will be found 
to be less than one-eighth." — La Place, Essai PMloso- 
phique stir les Prohahilites. 

That is, the chances for the fact thus attested being 
true, will be, according to this distinguished calculator, 
less than one in eight. Very few of the common news- 
paper stories, however, relating to foreign countries, 
could be traced, if the matter were carefully investigated, 
up to an actual eye-witness, even through twenty inter- 
mediate witnesses ; and many of the steps of our ladder 
would, I fear, prove but rotten ; few of the reporters 



20 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

ity of certain private correspondents abroad ; 
who these correspondents are, what means 
they have of obtaining information, or 
whether they exist at all, we have no way 
of ascertaining. We find ourselves in the 
condition of the Hindoos, who are told by 
their priests that the earth stands on an 
elephant, and the elephant on a tortoise ; 
but are left to find out for themselves what 
the tortoise stands on, or whether it stands 
on anything at all. 

So much for our clear knowledge of the 
means of information possessed by these 
witnesses ; next, for the grounds on which 
we are to calculate on their veracity. 

Have they not a manifest interest in cir- 
culating the wonderful accounts of Napoleon 
Buonaparte and his achievements, whether 
true or false ? Few would read newspapers 
if they did not sometimes find wonderful or 
important news in them ; and we may 
safely say that no subject was ever found so 
inexhaustibly interesting as the present. 

would deserve to have one in ten fixed as the proportion 
of their false accounts. 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 21. 

It may be urged, however, that there are 
several adverse political parties, of which 
the various public prints are respectively 
the organs, and who would not fail to ex- 
pose each other's fabrications.* Doubtless 
they would, if they could do so without at 
the same time exposing their own; but 
identity of interests may induce a commu- 
nity of operations up to a certain point. 
And let it be observed that the object of 
contention between these rival parties is, 
who shall have the administration of public 
affairs, the control of public expenditure, 
and the disposal of places : the question, I 
say, is, not, whether the people shall be 
governed or not, but, by which party they 
shall be governed ; — not whether the taxes 

* " I did not mention the difficulty of detecting a false- 
hood in any private or even public history, at the time 
and place where it is said to happen ; much more w^here 
the scene is removed to ever so small a distance. . . 

But the matter never comes to any 

issue, if trusted to the common method of altercation and 
debate and flying rumours." — Hume's Essay on Mira- 
cles,^. 195, 13mo; pp.200, 201, 8vo, 1767; p. 127, 
8vo, 1817. 



22 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

shall be paid or not, but who shall receive 
them. Now it must be admitted, that Buo- 
naparte is a political bugbear, most conve- 
nient to any administration : " if you do 
not adopt our measures and reject those of 
our opponents, Buonaparte will be sure to 
prevail over you ; if you do not submit to 
the Government, at least under our admin- 
istration, this formidable enemy will take 
advantage of your insubordination, to con- 
quer and enslave you : pay your taxes 
cheerfully, or the tremendous Buonaparte 
will take all from you.^^ Buonaparte, in 
short, was the burden of every song ; his 
redoubted viame was the charm which 
always succeeded in unloosing the purse- 
strings of the nation. And let us not be too 
sure, safe as we now think ourselves, that 
some occasion may not occur for again pro- 
ducing on the stage so useful a personage : 
it is not merely to naughty children in the 
nursery that the threat of being " given to 
Buonaparte" has proved effectual. 

It is surely probable, therefore, that with 
an object substantially the same, all parties 
may have availed themselves of one com- 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 23 

mon instrument. It is not necessary to 
suppose that for this purpose they secretly 
entered into a formal agreement ; though 
hy the way, there are reports afloat, that the 
editors of the Courier and Morning Chron- 
icle hold amicable consultations as to the 
conduct of their public warfare : I will not 
take upon me to say that this is incredible ; 
but at any rate it is not necessary for the 
establishment of the probability I contend 
for. Neither again would I imply that all 
newspaper-editors are utterers of forged 
stories, " knowing them to be forged ;" 
most likely the great majority of them pub- 
lish what they find in other papers with the 
same simplicity that their readers peruse it ; 
and therefore, it must be observed, are not 
at all more proper than their readers to be 
cited as authorities. 

Still it will be said, that unless we sup- 
pose a regularly preconcerted plan, we 
must at least expect to find great discrep- 
ancies in the accounts published. Though 
they might adopt the general outline of 
facts one from another, they would have to 
fill up the detail for themselves ; and in 



24 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

this, therefore, we should meet with infinite 
and irreconcilable variety. 

Now this is precisely the point I am tend- 
ing to ; for the fact exactly accords with 
the above supposition ; the discordance and 
mutual contradictions of these witnesses 
being such as would alone throw a con- 
siderable shade of doubt over their testi- 
mony. It is not in minute circumstances 
alone that the discrepancy appears, such as 
might be expected to appear in a narrative 
substantially true; but in very great and 
leading transactions, and such as are very 
intimately connected with the supposed 
hero. For ihstance, it is by no means 
agreed whether Buonaparte led in person 
the celebrated charge over the bridge of 
Lodi, (for celebrated it certainly is, as well 
as the siege of Troy, whether either event 
ever really took place or no,) or was safe 
in the rear, while Augereau performed the 
exploit. The same doubt hangs over the 
charge of the French cavalry at Waterloo. 
The peasant Lacoste, who professed to 
have been Buonaparte's guide on the day 
of the battle, and who earned a fortune by 



' NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 25 

detailing over and over again to visitors all 
the particulars of what the great man said 
and did up to the moment of flight, — this 
same Lacoste has been suspected by others, 
besides me, of having never even been near 
the great man, and having fabricated the 
whole story for the sake of making a gain 
of the credulity of travellers. In the ac- 
counts that are extant of the battle itself, 
published by persons professing to have 
been present, the reader will find that there 
is a discrepancy of three or four hours as to 
the time when the battle began ! — a battle, 
belt remembered, not fought with javelins 
and arrows, like those of the ancients, in 
which one part of a large army might be 
engaged, while a distant portion of the same 
army knew nothing of it ; but a battle com- 
mencing (if indeed it were ever fought at 
all) with the firing of cannon, which 
would have announced pretty loudly what 
was going on. It is no less uncertain 
whether or no this strange personage 
poisoned in Egypt an hospital-full of his 
own soldiers, and butchered in cold blood 

a garrison that had surrendered. But not 

3 



26 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

to multiply instances ; the battie of Boro- 
dino^ which is represented as one of the 
greatest ever fought, is unequivocally 
claimed as a victory by both parties ; nor is 
the question decided at this day. We have 
ofiicial accounts on both sides, circumstan- 
tially detailed, in the names of supposed 
respectable persons, professing to have been 
present on the spot ; yet totally irreconcila- 
ble. Both these accojunts may be false ; 
but since one of them must be false, that one 
(it is no matter which we suppose) proves 
incontrovertibly this important maxim ; that 
it is possible for a narrative — however 
circumstantial — however steadily main- 
tained — however public, and however im- 
portant, the events it relates — hoivever 
grave the authority on which it is pub- 
lished — to be nevertheless an entire fabri- 
cation ! 

Many of the events which have been 
recorded were probably believed much the 
more readily and firmly, from the apparent 
caution and hesitation with which they were 
at first published, — the vehement contra- 
diction in our papers of many pretended 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 27 

French accounts, — and the abuse lavished 
upon them for falsehood, exaggeration, and 
gasconade. But is it not possible, — is it not 
indeed perfectly natural, — that the publish- 
ers even of known falsehood should assume 
this cautious demeanour, and this abhor- 
rence of exaggeration, in order the more 
easily to gain credit ? Is it not also very 
possible, that those who actually believed 
what they published, may have suspected 
mere exaggeration in stories which were 
entire fictions? Many men have that sort 
of simplicity, that they think themselves 
quite secure against being deceived, pro- 
vided they believe only part of the story 
they hear; when perhaps the whole is 
equally false. So that perhaps these simple- 
hearted editors, who were so vehement 
against lying bulletins, and so wary in an- 
nouncing their great news, were in the 
condition of a clown, who thinks he has 
bought a great bargain of a Jew because he 
has beat down the price perhaps from a 
guinea to a crown, for some article that is 
not really worth a groat. 



28 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO J^jM 

With respect to the character of Buona- 
parte, the dissonance is if possible still 
greater. According to some, he was a wise, 
humane, magnanimous hero ; others paint 
him as a monster of cruelty, meanness, and - 
perfidy : some, even of those who are most 
inveterate against him, speak very highly 
of his political and military ability ; others 
place him on the very verge of insanity. 
But allowing that all this may be the colour- 
ing of party prejudice, (which surely is 
allowing a great deal,) there is one point to 
which such a solution will hardly apply : if 
there be anything that can be clearly ascer- 
tained in history, one would think it must 
be the personal courage of a military 
man ; yet here we are as much at a loss 
as ever ; at the very same times, and on the 
same occasions, he is described by different 
writers as a man of undaunted intrepidity, 
and as an absolute poltroon. 

What then are we to believe ? if we are 
disposed to credit all that is told us, we must 
believe in the existence not only of one, but 
of two or three Buonapartes ; if we admit 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE, 29 

nothing but what is well authenticated, we 
shall be compelled to doubt of the existence 
of any.* 

It appears, then, that those on whose tes- 
timony the existence and actions of Buona- 
parte are generally believed, fail in all the 
most essential points on which the credi- 
biUty of witnesses depends : first, we have 
no assurance that they have access to cor- 
rect information; secondly, they have an 
apparent interest in propagating falsehood ; 
and, thirdly, they palpably contradict each 
other in the most important points. 

Another circumstance which throws ad- 
ditional suspicion on these tales is, that the 
whig-party, as they are called, — the warm 
advocates for liberty, and opposers of the en- 
croachments of monarchical power, — have 
for some time past strenuously espoused 
the cause, and vindicated the character of 

* " We entertain a suspicion concerning any matter 
of fact, when the witnesses contradict each other ; when 
they are of a suspicious character ; when they have an 
interest in what they affirm." — Hume's Essay on 
Miracles, p. 172, 13mo; p. 176, 8vo, 1767; p. 113, 
8vo. 1817 



^0 mSTORlC OOUSTS RELATIVE TO 

Buonaparte, who is represented by all as 
having been, if not a tyrant, at least an 
absolute despot. One of the most forward 
in this cause is a gentleman, who once 
stood foremost in holding up this very man 
to public execration, — -who first published, 
and long maintained against popular incre- 
dulity, the accounts of his atrocities in 
Egypt. Now that such a course should be 
adopted for party purposes, by those who 
are aware that the whole story is a fiction, 
and the hero of it imaginary, seems not very 
incredible ; but if they believed in the real 
existence of this despot, I cannot conceive 
how they could so forsake their principles 
as to advocate his cause, and eulogize his 
character. 

After all, it may be expected that many 
who perceive the force of these objections, 
will yet be loath to think it possible that 
they and the public at large can have been 
so long and so greatly imposed upon. And 
thus it is that the magnitude and boldness 
of a fraud become its best support ; the 
millions who for so many ages have believed 
in Mahomet or Brahma, lean as it were on 



NAPOLEON nUONAPARTK, 31 

each other for support ; and not having 
vigour of mind enough holdly to throw off 
vulgar prejudices, and dare be wiser than 
the multitude, persuade themselves that 
what so many have acknowledged must be 
true. But I call on tliose who boast their 
philosophical freedom of thought, and would 
fain tread in the steps of Ilumc and other 
inquirers of the like exalted and specula- 
tive genius, to follow up fairly and fully 
ilicir own principles, and, throwing off the 
shackles of authority, to examine carefully 
the evidence of whatever is proposed to 
(hem, before they admit its truth. 

That even in this enlightened age, as it 
is called, a whole nation may be egregiously 
imposed upon, even in matters which inti- 
mately concern them, may be proved (if it 
has not be<. i already proved) by the follow- 
ing instance : it was stated in the newS' 
papers, that, a month after the battle of 
Trafalgar, an English officer, who had been 
a prisoner of war, and was exchanged 
returned to this country from France, and 
beginning to condole with his countrymen 
on the terrible defeat they had sustained, 



32 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

was infinitely astonished to learn that the 
battle of Trafalgar was a splendid victory : 
he had been assured, he said, that in that 
battle the English had been totally defeated ; 
and the French were fully and universally 
persuaded that such was the fact. Now if 
this report of the belief of the French 
nation was not true, the British public were 
completely imposed upon ; if it were true, 
then both nations were, at the same time, 
rejoicing in the event of the same battle, as 
a signal victory to themselves ; and conse- 
quently one or other, at least, of these 
nations must have been the dupes of their 
Government : for if the battle was never 
fought at all, or was not decisive on either 
side, in that case both parties were deceived. 
This instance, I conceive, is absolutely 
demonstrative of the point in question. 

" But what shall we say to the testimony 
of those many respectable persons who 
went to Plymouth on purpose, and saw 
Buonaparte with their own eyes ? must 
they not trust their senses ?" I would not 
disparage either the eye-sight or the veracity 
of these gentlemen. I am ready to allow 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 33 

that they went to Plymouth for the pur- 
pose of seeing Buonaparte ; nay more, that 
they actually rowed out mto the harbour in 
a boat, and came alongside of a man-of-war, 
on whose deck they saw a man in a cocked 
hat, who, they were told, was Buonaparte. 
This is the utmost point to which their tes- 
timony goes ; how they ascertained that 
this man in the cocked hat had gone through 
all the marvellous and romantic adventures 
with which we have so long been amused, 
we are not told. Did they perceive in his 
physiognomy, his true name, and authentic 
history? Truly this evidence is such as 
country people give one for a story of 
apparitions ; if you discover any signs of 
incredulity, they triumphantly show the 
very house which the ghost haunted, the 
identical dark corner where it used to 
vanish, and perhaps even the tombstone of 
the person whose death it foretold. Jack 
Cade's nobility was supported by the same 
irresistible kind of evidence : having asserted 
that the eldest son of Edmund Mortimer, 
Earl of March, v/as stolen by a beggar- 
woman, " became a bricklayer when he 



34 HISTOBIC DOUi,TS RELATIVE TO 

came to age," and was the father of the 
supposed Jack Cade ; one of his companions 
confirms the story, by saying, " Sir, he made 
a chimney in my father's house, and the 
bricks are aUve at this day to testify it ; 
therefore deny it not." 

Much of the same kind is vhe testimony 
of our brave countrymen, "vyho are ready 
to produce the scars they received in fight- 
ing against this terrible Buonaparte. That 
they fought and were wounded, they may 
safely testify ; and probably they no less 
firmly believe what they were told respect- 
ing the cause in which they fought : it 
would have been a high breach of discipline 
to doubt it ; and they, I conceive, are men 
better skilled in handling a musket, than in 
sifting evidence, and detecting imposture. 
But I defy any one of them to come for- 
ward and declare, on his own knoivledge, 
what was the cause in which he fought, — 
under whose commands the opposed gen- 
erals acted, — and whether the person who 
issued those commands did really perform 
the mighty achievements we are told of. 

Let those then who pretend to philoso- 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 35 

phical freedom of inquiry, — who scorn to 
rest their opinions on popular belief, and to 
shelter themselves under the example of the 
unthinking multitude, consider carefully, 
each one for himself, what is the evidence 
proposed to himself in particular, for the 
existence of such a person as Napoleon 
Buonaparte :— I do not mean, whether 
there ever was a person bearing that name, 
for that is a question of no consequence ; 
but whether any such person ever per- 
formed all the wonderful things attributed 
to him; — let him then weigh well the 
objections to that evidence, (of which I 
have given but a hasty and imperfect 
sketch,) and if he then finds it amount 
to anything more than a probability, I 
have only to congratulate him on his easy 
faith. 

But the same testimony which would 
have great weight in establishing a thing 
intrinsically probable, will lose part of this 
weight in proportion as the matter attested 
is improbable ; and if adduced in support of 
anything that is at variance with uniform 



06 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

experiencej* will be rejected at once by all 
sound reasoners. Let us then consider what 
sort of a story it is that is proposed to our 
acceptance. How grossly contradictory are 
the reports of the different authorities, I 
have already remarked : but consider, by 
itself, the story told by any one of them ; it 
carries an air of fiction and romance on the 
very face of it ; all the events are great, and 
splendid, and marvellous ;t great armies, 
great victories, great frosts, great reverses, 
" hair-breadth ^scapes,'' empires subverted 

* "That testimony itself derives all its force from 

experience, seems very certain 

. . . The first author, we believe, who stated fairly 
the connexion between the evidence of testimony and 
the evidence of experience, was Hume, in his Essay on 
Miracles, a work . . . abounding in maxims of great 
use in the conduct of life." -^—Edinb. Review, Sept. 1814, 
p. 328. 

j- " Suppose, for instance, that the fact which the tes- 
timony endeavours to establish partakes of the extraor- 
dinary and the marvellous ; in that case, the evidence 
resulting from the testimony receives a diminution, 
greater or less in proportion as the fact is more or, less 
unusual." — Hume's Essay on Miracles, p. 173, 12mo • 
p. 170, 8vo, 1767 ; p. 113, 8vo, 1817 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 37 

in a few days ; everything happening in 
defiance of political calculations, and in 
opposition to the experience of past times ; 
everything upon that grand scale, so com- 
mon in Epic Poetry, so rare in real life ; and 
thus calculated to strike the imagination of 
the vulgar, — and to remind the sober-think- 
ing few of the Arabian Nights. Every 
event too has that roundness and complete- 
ness which is so characteristic of fiction ; 
nothing is done by halves 5 we have com- 
plete victories, — total overthrows, — entire 
subversion of empires, — perfect re-establish- 
ments of them, — crowded upon us in rapid 
succession. To enumerate the improbabili- 
ties of each of the several parts of this his- 
tory, would fill volumes ; but they are so 
fresh in every one's memory, that there is 
no need of such a detail : let any judicious 
man, not ignorant of history and of human 
nature, revolve them in his' mind, and con- 
sider how far they are conformable to 
Experience,* our best and only sure guide. 

* " The ultimate standard by which we determine all 
disputes that may arise is ahravs derived from experience 

4 



S8 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

In vain will he seek in history for something 
similar to this wonderful Buonaparte ; 
"nought but himself can be his parallel." 

Will the conquests of Alexander be com- 
pared with his ? They were effected over 
a rabble of effeminate undisciplined barba- 
rians ; else his progress v/ould hardly have 
been so rapid : witness his father Philip, 
who was much longer occupied in subdu- 
ing the comparatively insignificant territory 
of the warlike and civilized Greeks, not- 
withstanding their being divided into 
numerous petty States, whose mutual 
jealousy enabled him to contend with them 
separately. But the Greeks had never made 
such progress in arts and arms as the great 
and powerful States of Europe, which 
Buonaparte is represented as so speedily 
overpowering. His empire has been com- 
pared to the Roman : mark the contrast ; 
he gains in a f»w years, that dominion, or 
at least control, over Germany, wealthy, 
civilized, and powerful, which the Romans 

and observation." — Hume^s Essay on Miracles, p. 172, 
12mo ; p. 175, 8vo, 1767; p. 112, 8vo, 1817. 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 39 

ill the plenitude of their power could not 
obtahi, during a struggle of as many cen- 
turies, against the ignorant half-savages 
who then possessed it ; of whom Tacitus 
remarks, that, up to his own time they had 
been " triumphed over rather than con- 
quered." 

Another peculiar circumstance in the 
history of this extraordinary personage is, 
that when it is found convenient to repre- 
sent him as defeated, though he is by no 
means defeated by halves, but iuA'olved in 
much more sudden and total ruin than the 
personages of real history usually meet 
with ; yet, if it is thought fit he should be 
restored, it is done as quickly and com- 
pletely as if Merlin's rod had been employed. 
He enters Russia with a prodigious army, 
which is totally ruined by an unprecedented 
hard winter ; (everything relating to this 
man is prodigious and unprecedented ;) 
yet m a few months we find him intrusted 
with another great army in Germany, which 
is aiso totally ruined at Leipsic ; making, 
inclusive of the Egyptian, the third great 
army thus totally lost : yet the French are so 



40 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

good-natured as to furnish him with another, 
sufficient to make a formidable stand in 
France ; he is however conquered^ and 
presented with the sovereignty of Elba ; 
(surely, by the bye, some more probable 
way might have been found of disposing of 
him, till again wanted, than to place him 
thus on the very verge of his ancient domin- 
ions ;) thence he returns to France, where 
he is received with open arms, and enabled 
to lose a fifth great army at Waterloo ; yet 
so eager were these people to be a sixth 
time led to destruction, that it was found 
necessary to confine him in an island some 
thousand miles off, and to quarter foreign 
troops upon them, lest they should make an 
insurrection in his favour !* Does any one 
believe all this, and yet refuse to believe a 
miracle ? Or rather, what is this but a 
miracle ? Is it not a violation of the laws 
of nature ? for surely there are moral laws 

Kat Tiov T't xai )3pc?7'wv ^pfi'aj 
'THEP TON AAH0H AOrON 

'.Elartar't^i'rt uvO.qi. Pind. Oiymp. 1. 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 41 

of nature as well as physical ; which though 
more liable to exceptions in this or that par- 
ticular case, are no less true as general 
rules than the laws of matter, and therefore 
cannot be violated and contradicted beyond 
a certain point, without a miracle.* 

* This doctrine, though hardly needing confirmation 
from authority, is supported by that of Hume : his eighth 
essay is, throughout, an argument for the doctrine of 
Philosophical " necessity," drawn entirely from the 
general uniformity observable in the course of nature 
with respect to the principles of human conduct, as well 
as those of the material universe ; from which uni- 
formity, he observes, it is that we are enabled, in both 
cases, to form our judgments by means of Experience : 
" and if," says he, "we would explode any forgery in 
history, we cannot make use of a more convincing argu- 
ment, than to prove that the actions ascribed to any 
person, are directly contrary to the course of nature. . 

The veracity of Quintus Curtius is as 

suspicious when he describes the supernatural courage 
of Alexander, by which he was hurried on single to 
attack multitudes, as when he describes his supernatural 
force and activity, by which he was able to resist them. 
So readily and universally do we acknowledge a uni- 
formity in human Quotives and actions as well as in the 
operations of body.'' — Eighth Essay, p. 131, 12rao; p. 
Vb, 8vo, 1817. 

Accordingly,/in the tenth essav, his use of the term 

4^ 



42 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

Nay, there is this additional circumstance; 
which renders the contradiction of Experi- 

" miracle," after having called it " a transgression of a 
law of nature," plainly shows that he meant to include 
human nature : " no testimony," says he, " is sufficient 
to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a 
nature that its falsehood would be more miraculous than 
the fact which it endeavours to establish." The term 
" prodigy" also (which he all along employs as synony- 
mous with "miracle") is applied to testimony, in the 
same manner, immediately after: "In the foregoing 

reasoning we have supposed that the 

falsehood of that testimony would be a kind oi 'prodigy T 
Now had he meant to confine the meaning of " miracle," 
and "prodigy," to a violation of the laws <A matter, the 
epithet " miraculous, ^^ applied even thus hypothetically, 
to false testimony, would be as unmeaning as the 
epithets " green," or " square ;" the only possible sense 
in which we can apply to it, even in imagination, the 
term " miraculous," is that of " highly improbable,"— 
" contrary to those laws of nature which r3spect human 
conduct :" and in this sense accordingly he uses the word 
in the very next sentence : " Wlien any one tells me 
that he saw a dead man restored to life, I immediately 
consider with myself whether it be more probable that 
this person should either deceive or be deceived, or that 
the fact which he relates should really have happened. 
I weigh the one miracle against the other." — Hume's 
Essay on Miracles, p. 176, 177, 12mo ; p. 182, 8vo, 
1767: p. 115, 8vo, 1S17. 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 43 

cnce more glaring in this case than in that 
of the miraculous histories which ingenious 
sceptics have held up to contempt ; all the 
advocates of miracles admit that they are 
rare exceptions to the general course of 
nature ; but contend that they must needs 
be so, on account of the rarity of those extra- 
ordinary occasions which are the reason of 
their being performed : a Miracle, they say, 
does not happen every day, because a Reve- 
lation is not given every day. It would be 
foreign to the present purpose to seek for 
arguments against this answer ; I leave it 
to those who are engaged in the contro- 
versy, to find a reply to it ; but my present 
object is, to point out that this solution does 
not at all apply in the present case. Where 

See also a passage above quoted from the same essay, 
where he speaks of " the miraculous accounts of travel- 
lers ;" evidently using the word in this sense. Perhaps 
it was superfluous to cite authority for applying the term 
" miracle" to whatever is highly " improbable ;" but it 
is important to the students of Hume, to be fully aware 
that he uses those two expressions as synonomous ; 
since otherwise they would mistake the meaning of that 
passage which he justly calls " a general maxim worthy 
of our attention." 



44 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

is the peculiarity of the occasion 7 What 
sufficient reason is there for a series of 
events occurring in the eighteenth and nine- 
teenth centuries, which never took place 
before ? Was Europe at that period pecu- 
liarly weak, and in a state of barbarism, 
that one man could achieve such conquests? 
and acquire such a vast empire ? On the 
contrary, she was flourishing in the height 
of strength and civilization. Can the perse- 
vering attachment and blind devotedness of 
the French to this man, be accounted for by 
his being the descendant of a long line of 
kings, whose race was hallowed by heredi- 
tary veneration ? No ; we are told he was 
a low-born usurper, and not even a French- 
man ! is it thaf he"" was a good and" kind 
sovereign ? He is represented not only as 
an imperious and merciless despot, but as 
most wantonly careless of the lives of his 
soldiers. Could the French army and people 
have failed to hear from the wretched sur- 
vivors of his supposed Russian expedition, 
how they had left the corpses of above 
100,000 of their comrades bleaching on the 
snow-drifts of that dismal country, whither 



NAPOLEON BUOxNAPARTE. 45 

his mad ambition had conducted them, and 
where his selfish cowardice had deserted 
them ? Wherever Ave turn to seek for cir- 
cumstances that may help to account for the 
events of this incredible story, we only meet 
with such as aggravate its improbability.* 
Had it been told of some distant country, at 
a remote period, we could not have told 
what peculiar circumstances there might 
have been to render probable what seems 
to us most strange ; and yet in that case 
every philosophical sceptic, every free- 
thinking speculator, would instantly have 
rejected such a history, as utterly unworthy 
of credit. What, for instance, v/ould the 
great Hume, or any of the philosophers of 
his school, have said, if they had found in 
the antique records of any nation such a 

* " Events may be so extraordinary that they can 
hardly be established by testimony. We would not give 
credit to a man who would affirm that he saw a hundred 
dice thrown in the air, and that they all fell on the 
same faces," — Edinh. Review, Sept. 1814, p. 327. 

Let it be observed, that the instance here given is 
miraculous in no other sense but that of being highly 
improhahle. 



46 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

passage as this ? " There was a certam man 
of Corsica, whose name was Napoleon, and 
he was one of the chief captains of the host 
of the French; and he gathered togetlier 
an army, and went and fought against 
Egypt : but when the king of Britain heard 
thereof, he sent ships of war and vaUant 
men to fight against the French in Egypt. 
So they warred against them, and prevailed, 
and strengthened the hands of the rulers of 
the land against the French, and drave 
away Napoleon from before the city of 
Acre. Then Napoleon left the captains and 
the army that were in Egypt, and fled, and 
returned back to France. So the French 
people took Napoleon, and made him ruler 
over them, and he became exceeding great, 
insomuch that there Was none like him of 
all that had ruled over France before.'^ 

What, I say, would Hume have thought 
of this, especially if he had been told that it 
was at this day generally credited ? Would 
he not have confessed that he had been 
mistaken in supposing there was a pecu- 
liarly blind credulity and prejudice in 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 47 

favour of everything that is accounted 
sacred ;'^ for that, since even professed scep- 
tics swallow impUcitly such a story as this, it 
appears there must be a still blinder preju- 
dice in favour of everything that is not 
accounted sacred ? 

Suppose, again, we found in this history 
such passages as the following : " And it 
came to pass after these things that Napo- 
leon strengthened himself, and gathered 
together another host instead of that which 
he had lost, and went and warred against 
the Prussians, and the Russians, and the 
Austrians, and all the rulers of the north 
country, which were confederate against 
him. And the ruler of Sweden also, which 
was a Frenchman, warred against Napo- 
leon. So they went forth, and fought against 
the French in the plain of Leipsic. And 
the French were discomfited before their 
enemies, and fled and came to the rivers 

* "If the spirit of religion join itself to the love of 
■wonder, there is an end of common sense ; and human 
testimony in these circumstances loses all pretensions to 
authority." — Hume^s Essai/ o.i Miracles, t^. 179, 12mo; 
p. 185, 8vo, 1767; p. 117, 8vo, 1817. 



48 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

which are behind Leipsic, and essayed to 
pass over, that they might escape out of the 
hand of their enemies ; but they could not, 
for Napoleon had broken down the bridges : 
so the people of the north countries came 
upon them, and smote them with a very 
ffrievous slaughter." 

" Then the ruler of Austria and all the 
rulers of the north countries sent messengers 
unto Napoleon to speak peaceably unto 
him, saying, Why should there be war 
between us any more ? Now Napoleon had 
put away his wife, and taken the daughter 
of the ruler of Austria to wife. So all the 
counsellors of Napoleon came and stood 
before him, and said. Behold now these 
kings are merciful kings ; do even as they 
say unto thee ; knowest thou not yet that 
France is destroyed ? But he spake roughly 
unto his counsellors, and drave them out 
from his presence, neither would he hearken 
unto their voice. And when all the kings 
saw that, they warred against France, and 
smote it with the edge of the sword, and 
came near to Paris, which is the royal city, 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 49 

to take it : so the men of Paris went out, 
and delivered the city to them. Then those 
kings spake kindly unto the men of Paris, 
saying, Be of good cheer, there shall no 
harm happen unto you. Then were the 
men of Paris glad, and said. Napoleon is a 
tyrant ; he shall no more rule over us : also 
all the princes, the judges, the counsellors, 
and the captams whom Napoleon had raised 
up even from the lowest of the people, sent 
unto Lewis the brother of King Lewis, 
whom they had slain, and made him king 
over France." 

'^ And when Napoleon saw that the king- 
dom was departed from him, he said unto 
the rulers which came against him. Let me, 
I pray you, give the kingdom unto my son : 
but they would not hearken unto him. 
Then he spake yet again, saying, Let me, I 
pray you, go and live in the island of Elba, 
which is over against Italy, nigh unto the 
coast of France ; and ye shall give me an 
allowance for me and my household, and 
the land of Elba also for a possession. So 
they made him ruler of Elba." .... 



60 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

" In those days the Pope returned unto 
his own land. Now the French, and divers 
other nations of Europe, are servants of the 
Pope, and hold him in reverence ; but he is 
an abomination unto the Britons, and to the 
Prussians, and to the Russians, and to the 
Swedes. Howbeit the French had taken 
away all his lands, and robbed him of all 
that he had, and carried him away captive 
into France. But when the Britons, and 
the Prussians, and the Russians, and the 
Swedes, and the rest of the nations that 
were confederate against France, came 
thither, they caused the French to set the 
Pope at liberty, and to restore all his goods 
that they had taken; likewise they gave 
him back all his possessions ; and he went 
home in peace, and ruled over his own city 
as in times past.'^ 

" And it came to pass when Napoleon 
had not yet been a full year at Elba, that 
he said unto his men of war which clave 
unto him. Go to, let us go back to France, 
and fight against King Lewis, and thrust 
him out from being king. So he departed, 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 01 

he and six hundred men with him that drew 
the sword, and warred against King Lewis. 
Then all the men of Behal gathered them- 
selves together, and said, God save Napo- 
leon. And when Lewis saw that, he fled, 
and gat him into the land of Batavia : and 
Napoleon ruled over France," &c. &c. &c. 
Now if a free-thinking philosopher — one 
of those who advocate the cause of un- 
biassed reason, and despise pretended reve- 
lations—were to meet with such a tissue of 
absurdities as this in an old Jewish record, 
would he not reject it at once as Too palpa- 
ble an imposture* to deserve even any in- 
quiry into its evidence ? Is that credible 
then of the civilized Europeans now, which 

* " I desire any one to lay his hand upon his heart, 
and after serious consideration declare whether he thinks 
that the falsehood of such a book, supported by such 
testimony, would be more extraordinary and miraculous 
than all the miracles it relates." — Hume's Essay on 
Miracles, p. 200, 12mo; p. 206, 8vo. 1767; p. 131, 8vo, 
1817. 

Let it be borne in mind, that Hume (as I have above 
remarked) continually employs the terms " miracle" and 
" prodigy" to signify anything that is highly improhahle 
and extraordinary. 



52 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

could not, if reported of the semi-barbarous 
Jews 3000 years ago, be established by any 
testimony? Will it be answered, that "there 
is nothing supernatural in all this ?" Why 
is it, then, that you object to what is super- 
natural — that you reject every account of 
miracles — if not because they are impro- 
bable ? Surely then a story equally or still 
more improbable, is not to be implicitly re- 
ceived, merely on the ground that it is not 
miraculous : though in fact, as I have al- 
ready (in note, p. 41,) shown from Hume's 
authority, it really is miraculous. The op- 
position to Experience has been proved to 
be as complete in this case, as in what are 
commonly called miracles ; and the reasons 
assigned for that contrariety by the defend- 
ers of them, cannot be pleaded in the present 
instance. If then philosophers, who reject 
every wonderful story that is maintained 
by priests, are yet found ready to believe 
everything else, however improbable, they 
will surely lay themselves open to the accu- 
sation brought against them of being unduly 
prejudiced against whatever relates to reli- 
don. 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 53 

There is one more circumstance which I 
cannot forbear mentioning, because it so 
much adds to the air of fiction Avhich per- 
vades every part of this marvellous tale ; 
and that is, the nationality of it* 

Buonaparte prevailed over all the hostile 
States in turn, except England ; in the ze- 
nith of his power, his fleets were swept from 
the sea, hy England ; his troops always 
defeat an equal, and frequently even a su- 
perior number of those of any other nation, 
except the English; and Avith them it is 
just the reverse ; twice, and twice only, he 
is personally engaged against an English 
commander, and both times he is totally 
defeated ; at Acre, and at Waterloo ; and 
to crown all, England finally crushes this 
tremendous power, which has so long kept 
the continent in subjection or in alarm ; and 
to the English he surrenders himself pri- 

* " The wise lend a very academic faith to every re- 
port which favours the passion of the reporter, whether 
it magnifies his country, his family, or himself."— 
Hume's Essay 07i Miracles, p. 144, 12mo ; p. 200, 8vo, 
1767; p. 126, 8vo, 1817. 



54 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

soner ! Thoroughly national, to be sure ! 
It may be all very true ; but I would only 
ask, //"a story had been fabricated for the 
express purpose of amusing the English 
nation, could it have been contrived more 
ingeniously ? It would do admirably for 
an epic poem ; and indeed bears a consider- 
able resemblance to the Iliad and the 
^neid ; in which Achilles and the Greeks, 
^neas and the Trojans, (the ancestors of 
the Romans,) are so studiously held up to 
admiration. Buonaparte's exploits seem 
magnified in order to enhance the glory of 
his conquerors ; just as Hector is allowed 
to triumph during the absence of Achilles, 
merely to give additional splendour to his 
overthrow by the arm of that invincible 
hero. Would not this circumstance alone 
render a history rather suspicious in the 
eyes of an acute critic, even if it were not 
filled with such gross improbabilities ; and 
induce him to suspend his judgment, till 
very satisfactory evidence (far stronger than 
can be found in this case) should be pro- 
duced ? 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 55 

Is it then too much to demand of the 
wary academic* a suspension of judgment 
as to the " life and adventures of Napoleon 
Buonaparte ?^' I do not pretend to decide 
positively that there is not, nor ever was, 
any such person ; but merely to propose it 
as a doubtful point, and one the more 
deserving of careful investigation, from the 
very circumstance of its having hitherto 
been admitted without inquiry. Far less 
would I undertake to decide what is, or has 
been, the real state of affairs. He who 
points out the improbability of the current 
story, is not bound to suggest an hypothesis 
of his own ;t though it may safely be 
affirmed, that it would be hard to invent 
any one more improbable than the received 
one. One may surely be allowed to hesi- 

* " Nothing can be more contrary than such a phi- 
losophy" (the academic or sceptical) " to the supine in- 
dolence of the mind, its rash arrogance, its lofty preten- 
sions, and its superstitious credulity." — Fifth Essay, p. 
68, 12mo; p. 41, 8vo, 1817. 

f See Hume's Essay on Miracles, p. 189, 191, 195, 
12mo; p. 193, 197, 201, 202. 8vo, 1767; p. 124, 125 
126, Svo, 1817. 



56 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

tate in admitting the stories which the 
ancient poets tell, of earthqiia.kes and vol- 
canic eruptions being caused by imprisoned 
giants, without being called upon satisfac- 
torily to account for those phsenomena. 

Amidst the defect of valid evidence under 
which, as I have already shown, we labour 
in the present instance, it is hardly possible 
to offer more than here and there a probable 
conjecture ; or to pronounce how much may 
be true, and how much fictitious, in the 
accounts presented to us. For it is to be 
observed that this case is much more open 
to sceptical doubts even than some miracu- 
lous histories ; for some of them are of such 
a nature that you cannot consistently admit 
a part and reject the rest; but are bound, 
if you are satisfied as to the reality of any 
one miracle, to embrace the whole system ; 
so that it is necessary for the sceptic to im- 
peach the evidence of a// of them, separately, 
and collectively : whereas here each single 
point requires to be established separately, 
since no one of them authenticates the rest. 
Supposing there be a state-prisoner at St. 
Helena, (which, by the way, it is acknow- 



# NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 57 

ledged many of the Frencli disbelieve,) 
how do we know who he is, or why he 
is confined there? There have been state- 
prisoners before now, who were never 
guilty of subjugating half Europe, and 
whose oifences have been very imperfectly 
ascertained. Admitting that there have been 
bloody wars going on for several years past, 
which is highly probable, it does not follow 
that the events of those wars were such as 
we have been told; — that Buonaparte was 
the author and conductor of them ; — or that 
such a person ever existed. What disturb- 
ances may have taken place in the govern- 
ment of the French people, we, and even 
nineteen-twentieths of them, have no means 
of learning but from imperfect hearsay evi- 
dence ; and how much credit they themselves 
attach to that evidence, is very doubtful. 
This at least is certain ; that a M. Berryer, 
a French advocate, has published memoirs, 
professing to record many of the events of 
the recent history of France, in which, 
among other things, he states his conviction 
that Buonaparte's escape from Elba was 



58 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

DESIGNED AND CONTRIVED BY THE EnGLISH 

Government.* And we are assured by 
many travellers that this was, and is, com- 
monly reported in France. 

Now that the French should believe the 
whole story about Buonaparte according to 
this version of it, does seem utterly incredi- 
ble. Let any one suppose them seriously 
believing that we maintained for many 
years a desperate struggle against this for- 
midable emperor of theirs, in the course of 
which we expended such an enormous 
amount of blood and treasure as is report- 
ed ; — that we finally, after . encountering 
enormous risks, succeeded in subduing him, 
and secured him in a place of safe exile ; — 
and that, in less than a year after, we turned 
him out again, like a bag-fox, — or rather, a 
bag-lion, — for the sake of amusing our- 
selves by again staking all that was dear to 
us on the event of a doubtful and bloody 
battle, in which, victory, if obtained at all, 
must cost us many thousands of our best 
soldiers. Let any one force himself for a 

• See Edinburgh Review for October 1842, p. 162. 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 59 

moment to conceive the French seriously 
beheving such a mass of absurdity; and 
the inference must be that such a people 
must be prepared to believe anything. They 
might fancy their own country to abound 
not only with Napoleons, but with dragons 
and centaurs J and -" men whose heads do 
grow beneath their ^noulders/' or anything 
else that any lunatic ever dreamt of If we 
could suppose the French capable of such 
monstrous credulity as the above supposi- 
tion would imply, it is plain their testimony 
must be altogether worthless. 

But on the other hand, suppose them to 
be aware that the British Government have 
been all along imposing on us, and it is 
quite ilatural that they should deride our 
credulity, and try whether there is anything 
too extravagant for us to swallow. And 
indeed if Buonaparte was in fact altogether 
a phantom conjured up by the British Min- 
isters, then it is true that his escape from 
Elba really loas, as well as the rest of his 
exploits, a contrivance of theirs. 

But whatever may be believed by the 
French relative to the recent occurrences in 



60 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

their own country, and whatever may be 
the real character of these occurrences, of 
this at least we are well assured, that there 
have been numerous bloody wars with 
France under the dominion of the Bour- 
bons : .and we are now told that France is 
governed by a Bourbon king, named 
Lewis, who professes to be in the twenty- 
third year of his reign. Let every one 
conjecture for himself. I am far from pre- 
tending to decide who may have been the 
governor or governors of the French nation, 
and the leaders of their armies, for several 
years past. Certain it is, that when men 
are indulging their inclination for the mar- 
vellous, they always show a strong propen- 
sity to accumulate upon one individual (real 
or imaginary) the exploits of many ; besides 
multiplying and exaggerating these exploits 
a thousandfold. Thus, the expounders of 
the ancient mythology tell us there were 
several persons of the name of Hercules, 
(either origmally bearing that appellation, 
or having it applied to them as an honour,) 
whose collective feats, after being dressed 
up in a sufficiently marvellous garb, were 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 61 

attributed to a single hero. Is it not just 
possible, that during the rage for words of 
Greek derivation, the title of " Napoleon," 
(NasfoAscoi')^ which signifies "Lion of the 
forest," may have been conferred by the 
popular voice on more than one favourite 
general, distinguished for irresistible valour ? 
Is it not also possible that " Buona parte" 
may have been originally a sort of cant 
term applied to the " good (i. e. the bravest, 
or most patriotic) part" of the French army, 
collectively ; and have been afterwards mis- 
taken for the proper name of an individual ? 
I do not profess to support this conjecture ; 
but it is certain that such mistakes may and 
do occur. Some critics have supposed that 
the Athenians imagined Anastasis ("Re- 
surrection") to be a new goddess, in whose 
cause Paul was preaching. Would it have 
been thought any thing incredible if we 
had been told, that the ancient Persians, who 
had no idea of anything but a monarchical 
government, had supposed Aristocratia to be 
a queen of Sparta ? But we need not confine 
ourselves to hypothetical cases; it is posi- 
tively stated that the Hindoos at this day 
6 



62 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

believe " the honourable East India Com- 
pany" to be a venerable old Lady of high 
dignity, residing in this country. The Ger- 
mans of the present day derive their name 
from a similar mistake : the first tribe of 
them who invaded Gaul* assumed the hon- 
orable title of " Ger-man^^ which signi- 
fies " warrior 5" (the words, " war" and 
" guerre," as well as "man," which remains 
in our language ' unaltered, are evidently 
derived from the Teutonic,) and the Gauls 
applied this as a name to the whole race. 

However, I merely throw out these con- 
jectures without by any means contending 
that more plausible ones might not be sug- 
gested. But whatever supposition we adopt, 
or whether Ave adopt any, the objections to 
the commonly received accounts v^ill remain 
in their full force, and imperiously demand 
the attention of the candid sceptic. 

* Germanise vocabulum recens et nuper additum ; quo- 
niam, qui primi Rhenum transgress! Gallos expulerint, 
ac nunc Tungri, tunc Germani vocati sint : ita nationig 
nomen in nomen gentis evaluisse paullatim, ut omnes> 
primum a victore ob metum, mox a seipsis invento nomi- 
ne, Germani vocarentur. — Tacitus, de Mor. Germ. 

5* 



NArOLEON BUONAPARTE. 63 

I call upon those, therefore, who profess 
themselves advocates of free mqiihy — who 
disdain to be carried along with the stream 
of popular opinion, — and who will listen to 
no testimony that runs counter to experi- 
ence, — to follow up their own principles 
fairly and consistently. Let the same mode 
of argument be adopted in all cases alike ; 
and then it can no longer be attributed to 
hostile prejudice, but to enlarged and philo- 
sophical views. If they have already reject- 
ed some histories, on the ground of their 
being strange and marvellous, — -of their 
relating facts, unprecedented, and at vari- 
ance with the established course of nature, 
• — let them not give credit to another history 
which lies open to the very same objections, 
— the extraordinary and romantic tale we 
have been just considering. If they have 
discredited the testimony of witnesses, who 
are said at least to have been disinterested, 
and to have braved persecutions and death 
in support of their assertions, — can these 
philosophers consistently listen to and be- 
lieve the testimony of those who avowedly 
get money by the tales they publish, and 



t)4 HISTORIC DOUBTS RELATIVE TO 

who do not even pretend that they incur 
any serious risk in case of being detected in 
a falsehood ? If in other cases they have 
refused to hsten to an account which has 
passed through many intermediate hands 
before it reaches them, and whicii is defend- 
ed by those who have an interest in main- 
taining it ; let them consider through how 
many, and what very suspicious hands, this 
story has arrived to them, without the possi- 
biUty, as I have shown, of tracing it back to 
any decidedly authentic source, after all ; — 
to any better authority, according to their 
own, showing, than that of an unnamed 
and unknown foreign correspondent ; — and 
hkewise how strong an interest, in every 
way, those who have hitherto imposed on 
them, have, in keeping up the imposture. 
Let them, in short, show themselves as 
ready to detect the cheats, and despise the 
fables, of politicians, as of priests. 

But if they are still Avedded to the popu- 
lar belief in this point, let them be consist- 
ent enough to admit the same evidence in 
oMer cases, which they yield to in this. If, 
after all that lias been said, they cannot 



NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 65 

bring themselves to doubt of the existence 
of Napoleon Buonaparte, they must at least 
acknowledge that they do not apply to that 
question the same plan of reasoning which 
they have made use of in others ; and they 
are consequently bound in reason and in 
honesty to renounce it altogether. 



66 



POSTSCRIPT 

TO THE THIRD EDITION. 



It may seem arrogant for an obscure and 
nameless individual to claim the glory of 
having put to death the most formidable of 
all recorded heroes. But a shadowy cham- 
pion may be overthrown by a shadowy an- 
tagonist. Many a terrific spectre has been 
laid by the beams of a half-penny candle. 
And if I have succeeded in making out, in 
the foregoing pages, a probable case of sus- 
picion, it must, I think, be admitted, that 
there is some ground for my present boast, 
of having killed Napoleon Buonaparte. 

Let but the circumstances of the case be 
considered. This mighty Emperor, who had 
been so long the bugbear of the civilized 
world, after having obtained successes and 
undergone reverses, such as never befel any 
(other at least) real potentate, was at length 
sentenced to confinement in the remote 



POSTSCRIPT TO THE THIRD EDITION. 67 

Island of St. Helena: a measure which many 
persons wondered at, and many objected to, 
on various grounds ; not unreasonabl^rj sup- 
posing the ilhistrious exile to be a real per- 
son : but on the supposition of his being 
only a man of straw, the situation was ex- 
ceedingly favourable for keeping him out 
of the way of impertinent curiosity, when 
not wanted, and for making him the foun- 
dation of any new plots that there might 
be occasian to conjure up. 

About this juncture it was that the public 
attention was first invited by these pages, to 
the question as to the real existence of Na- 
poleon Buonaparte. They excited, it may 
be fairly supposed, along with much sur- 
prise and much censure, some degree ofi 
doubt, and probably, of consequent inquiry. 
No fresh evidence, as far as I can learn, of 
the truth of the disputed points, was brought 
forward to dispel these doubts. We heard, 
however, of the most jealous precautions 
being used to prevent any intercourse be- 
tween the formidable prisoner, and any 
stranger, who, from motives of curiosity, 
might wish to visit him. The '' man in the 



68 POSTSCRIPT TO THE THIRD EDITION. 

iron mask'^ could hardly have been more 
rigorously secluded: and we also heard 
various contradictory reports of conversa- 
tions between him and the few who were 
allowed access to him ; the falsehood and 
inconsistency of most of these reports being 
proved in contemporary publications. 

At length, just about the time when the 
public scepticism respecting this extraordi- 
nary personage might be supposed to have 
risen to an alarming height, it was an- 
nounced to us that he was dead ! A stop 
was thus put, most opportunely, to all 
troublesome inquiries. I do not undertake 
to deny that such a person did live and die. 
That he was, and that he did, everything 
that is reported, we cannot believe, unless 
we consent to admit contradictory state- 
ments ; but many of the events recorded, 
however marvellous, a.re certainly not physi- 
cally impossible. But I would only entreat 
the candid reader to reflect what might 
naturally be expected, on the supposition 
of the surmises contained in the present 
work being well-founded. Supposing the 
whole of the tale I have been considering 



POSTSCRIPT TO THE THIRD EDITION. 69 

to have been a fabrication, what would be 
the natural result of such an attempt to ex- 
cite inquiry into its truth ? Evidently, the 
shortest and most effectual mode of eluding 
detection, would be to kill the phantom, and 
so get rid of him at once. A ready and 
decisive answer would thus be provided to 
any one in whom the foregoing arguments 
might have excited suspicions : " Sir, there 
can be no doubt that such a person existed, 
and performed what is related of him ; and 
if you will just take a voyage to St. Helena, 
you may see with your own eyes, — not him 
indeed, for he is no longer living, — but his 
tomb : and what evidence would you have 
that is more decisive ?" 

So much for his Death : as for his Life 
— it is just published by an eminent writer : 
besides which, the shops will supply us with 
abundance of busts and prints of this great 
man ; all striking likenesses — of one an- 
other. The most incredulous must be satis- 
fied with this ! " Stat magni NOMINIS 
umbra !" 

KONX OMPAX. 



70 



POSTSCRIPT 



TO THE SEVENTH EDITION. 



Since the publication of the Sixth Edition 
of this work, the French nation, and the 
world at large, have obtained an additional 
evidence, to which I hope they will attach 
as much weight as it deserves, of the reality 
of the wonderful history I have been treat- 
ing of. The Great Nation, among the 
many indications lately given of an heroic 
zeal like what Homer attributes to his 
Argive warriors, 'tloaadai 'eaen'hs o^yJifiatd 
•is 6tovaxO'? Tfsj have formed and executed the 
design of bringing home for honourable 
interment the remains of their illustrious 
Chief 

How many persons have actually in- 
spected these relics, I have not ascertained ; 
but that a real coffin, containing real bones, 



POSTSCRIPT TO THE riEVENTH EDITION. 71 

was brought from St. Helena to France, I 
see no reason to disbelieve. 

Whether future visitors to St. Helena will 
be shown merely the identical place in 
which Buonaparte, was (said to have been) 
interred, or whether another set of real 
bones will be exhibited in that island, we 
have yet to learn. 

This latter supposition is not very im- 
probable. It was something of a credit to 
the island, an attraction to strangers, and a 
source of profit to some of the inhabitants, 
to possess so remarkable a relic ; and this 
glory and advantage they must naturally 
wish to retain. If so, there seems no reason 
why they should not have a Buonaparte of 
their own ; for there is, I believe, no doubt 
that therejirg!, or were, several Museums in 
England, which, among other curiosities, 
boasted, each, of a genuine skull of Oliver 
Cromwell. 

Perhaps, therefore, we shall hear of 
several well-authenticated skulls of Buona- 
parte also, in the collections of different 
virtuosos, all of whom (especially those ia 



72 POSTSCRIPT TO THE SEVENTH EDITION. 

whose own crania the " organ of wonder" 
is the most largely developed) will doubt- 
less derive equal satisfaction from the relics 
they respectively possess. 



FINIS, 



Geo. Charles, Stereotyper, No. 9 George Street. 



C Z39 89l 




















e ^^-r. 


















. . « 


















* ^ ^ 















> ^T"^^*^** <x,^ 











Ho^ 










"^c,^"* * 











..^' 



HECKMAN 

BINDERY INC. 

^^ AUG 89 

N. MANCHESTER, 



aV <^ ^'^Vi 




